Edwards2005a

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Edwards2005a
BibType ARTICLE
Key Edwards2005a
Author(s) Derek Edwards
Title Moaning, whinging and laughing: the subjective side of complaints
Editor(s)
Tag(s) Discursive Psychology, announcements, complaints, conversation analysis, discursive psychology, displacement, laughter, subjectivity
Publisher
Year 2005
Language English
City
Month
Journal Discourse Studies
Volume 7
Number 1
Pages 5–29
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/1461445605048765
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Indirect complaint sequences are examined in a corpus of everyday domestic telephone conversations. The analysis focuses on how a speaker/complainer displays and manages their subjective investment in the complaint. Four features are picked out: (1) announcements, in which an upcoming complaint is projected in ways that signal the complainer’s stance or attitude; (2) laughter accompanying the complaint announcement, and its delivery and receipt; (3) displacement, where the speaker complains about something incidental to what would be expected to be the main offence; and (4) uses of lexical descriptions such as ‘moan’ and ‘whinge’ that formulate subjectivity, investment, and a disposition to complain, and are generally used to counter a complaint’s evidential basis or objectivity. Laughter and irony provide complaint recipients with response cues, and are used in ways that can strengthen as well as undermine a complaint’s factual basis and seriousness.

Notes